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EF1 tornado in Wayne County, Mississippi

Tornado December 16, 2019 · Wayne County, Mississippi

EF1

Rating

61.2 mi

Whole path

150 yd

Path width

Injuries

$1.2M

Damage as recorded

NOAA records this tornado county by county. Its path ran through Jones County → Wayne County → Clarke County → Choctaw County, Alabama; the totals above are for the whole tornado.

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 150 yards (0.09 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF1 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF1 is moderate damage: roofs badly stripped, mobile homes pushed off foundations or overturned, windows broken, consistent with estimated gusts of 86–110 mph. The rating comes from a survey of the worst damage after the storm, not from a wind measurement, so it says as much about what the tornado hit as about how strong it was.

What the National Weather Service wrote

A long track tornado that first touched down in Laurel in Jones County MS, briefly moved just inside the Wayne County line, before continuing into Clarke County MS. Damage was confined to tree damage right along the Wayne County border with Jasper and Clarke County. The intensity of the tornado in Wayne County MS was EF-1.

The wider storm

A strong storm system moved across the southeastern states during the day. Severe thunderstorms developed ahead of this system and moved across the area through the late afternoon and evening hours. This system produced a long track tornado that began in Jones County Mississippi and briefly moved just inside the Wayne County line. The damage along the Wayne County border portion of the track was consistent with EF-1 intensity.

Began near Merrill (31.8102, -88.9432).

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 870526. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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